Broccoli and Pineapple Udon Bowl with Pineapple-Peanut Sauce

Thank you for all your kind words about my knees. Thankfully I had friends and co-workers (AND ROB!) to help with my (on-going) recovery. Unlike my sister-in-law who is still driving herself to work (her [now confirmed] broken toe is on her non-driving foot), Rob has been driving me to work. Not that I couldn’t drive myself, but he is just that awesome.

He has also been helping me around the kitchen. He made the cheezy chickpea dip again although I was to blame for the burnt coconut bacon, as Rob tended to a broken beer bottle. The beer bottle that exploded (from the bottom), after the rice vinegar fell on it which was knocked over when Rob was putting back the liquid smoke. Oh my.

He also revisited some old favourites like tamarind lentils and my lemon-ginger miso soup (Rob’s addition were carrots, parsnips with some noodles and I then added extra sauteed mushrooms and baby spinach to mine). Yum!

Rob also has been steaming up broccoli like a pro. For this dish, he went all out with a sauce, tofu and noodles. The pineapple was a fun twist on a Hawaiian noodle bowl with a peanut sauce. I love how the pineapple was used to sweeten the sauce directly. Ginger and sriracha made it a bit zippy but this was all tempered by the sweetness from the pineapple.

While Rob was busy in the kitchen, I caught up on my web reading. Which also meant that Rob’s to-read list got longer as I punted them to him as well! Like my last link share, I figured you may enjoy them, too. There are a few travel-related links here. You know that I like to travel but you may not know that Rob loves travelling, too, and spent over a year abroad backpacking in Southeast Asia and Australia/New Zealand before we met. He wrote about that on his blog.

Without further ado, please let me know what you think about these links:

1. Place all the ingredients for the pineapple-peanut sauce into a blender and puree until smooth. Season to taste and then set aside.

2. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat oil. Once hot, add tofu and saute until browned, turning to lightly brown most sides. Remove from pan and set aside.

3. Meanwhile, boil your water and cook your noodles as per the directions. Drain when cooked through.

4. Using the same pan as for the tofu, still on medium heat, add the broccoli, peanut and water. Spread the broccoli around the pan. Cover with a lid and steam for 2 minutes, or until the broccoli is tender crisp and a brilliant green.

5. Remove the lid and reduce heat to low. Add tofu back to the pan and add half the sauce. Stir to combine. Pour mixture overtop noodles. Top with cashews and add additional sauce, if desired.

Aaaaw, you’re definitely lucky to have Rob 🙂 This dish looks great to me, and I’m not even that keen on pineapple!
Thanks for all those links- I’ve seen the “murmuration” video before and it’s so awe-inspiring! I love to travel too so those travel-y ones are also appreciated.

Hope you are mending, Janet….and whatever you did to sprain your knees, I’m sure we all have done something equivalent (I’m still recovering from an inflamed piriformis muscle that resulted in sciatica…and I think it was probably from overexerting in yoga!).

Recipe sounds delicious. I haven’t bought udon noodles in forever, but may as well (I was thinking that soba noodles were healthier until you posted about most not being 100% buckwheat…life has never been the same since, but such is the risk I take in reading your blog (that I’m going to learn something and it will be scientifically valid…even if it’s not exactly what I wanted to hear).

re: B&J…”Unilever, one of the world’s largest consumer-products companies, owns Ben & Jerry’s” just makes me shudder
re: your udon bowl…mmmmyummm! A perfect bowl for National Chopsticks Day! Thanks for the recipe!
Hope your knees heal quickly and you enjoy nothing but good health from then on. Cheers!

Glad you liked this recipe too! I love pineapple, so I loved that you get a double dose of it two ways in this dish too. Love your idea of using udon noodles as the base instead of rice – I’ll have to try that next time!

[…] our protein of choice are chickpeas, which I contemplated for my second iteration. Worried it would be a tad repetitive (broccoli + chickpeas + peanut sauce is a common occurrence on this blog), I stuck […]